63 
vart 3 .] iStanford : Borings for Coal in Godavari Valley. 
Altogether the combined bed of shale and coal measures 29 feet 6 inches, of which 11 feet 
8 inches is coal, but the bands of coal and shale are intermixed in a way which would much 
increase the cost of working the seam. The astonishing change, however, in so short a dis¬ 
tance as 125 yards from a bed 25 feet thick containing 7 feet of coal in two well defined seams 
exceeds anything usual even in India, amongst the very variable seams sometimes met 
with in the Barakar group, and this amount of change within so short a distance rendered 
it doubtful whether the seam could be traced to any distance. 
It was now desirable, 1st, to ascertain the extent of the seam, and 2nd, its quality. For 
the extent two boreholes were put down, one to the east, the other to the west, at a distance 
of about one-third of a mile from No. 1, on the supposed strike of the coal seam. All 
the ground east and west, for a considerable distance being completely covered by alluvium, 
the true strike could only be inferred from the line of outcrop of the metamorphia rocks 
to the northward. To the east the borehole (No. 4) was a complete failure. It was put 
down in an open plain north of the village of Ganara. It passed through 34 feet of earth 
and 18 feet of quicksand, in which no further progress could be made, as the sand filled the 
tube faster than it could be removed by the “ pump” or mineral lifter. A second borehole 
200 yards farther south (No. 5) was equally unsuccessful. After passing through 22 feet 
of soil and 24 feet of quicksand it also had to be abandoned. There was not time for more 
attempts in this direction. 
The boring to the west (No. 3) was on higher ground, just south of the village of 
Tatpali. It gave— 
Ft. In. 
(No. 3). Soil and gravel ... ... ••• • ••• 3 7 
1? Sandstone, yellow, brown, and red ... ... ... 29 9 
fPale coloured sliale ... ... ... ... 10 0 
2 ?•< Red and yellow sandstone with some shale ... ... 7 0 
(Shale, pale and dark ... ... ... ... 13 0 
3 P White sandstone with a little shale and brown sandstone ... 24 8 
88 0 
In my absence this borehole was stopped by Mr. Heppel, and another (No. 6) started 
250 yards to the south-east. This was on somewhat lower ground, and as the beds dip south 
at a low angle the section is probably that of the same beds— 
Ft. In. 
Soil 
... 11 
0 
IP 
Brown sandstone ... 
... 13 
10 
'Bull' shale 
6 
0 
2? - 
Red sandstone 
2 
0 
[.Dark shale 
6 
0 
3? 
White sandstone with darker bands 
... 4G 
0 
84 10 
These sections I am strongly inclined to believe are in the same beds as Nos. 1 and 2. 
We have the same general succession, brown and yellow sandstone above, then a thick bed of 
shale, and then wliito sandstone. I have recommended that one of the boreholes should be 
carried out to a greater depth on the possibility of these beds belonging to a higher horizon, 
but I cannot think this at all probable. The evidence afforded by these boreholes appears to 
indicate that the coal thins out and disappears to the westward within a short distance. 
Meantime a locality for a small pit had been selected up the Ganar stream 350 yards north¬ 
east of No. 1 borehole, at a spot where some yellow sandstone, just like that immediately over 
the coal, crops out in the bank of the nala, in the expectation that this would be close to the 
